Budgeting is an essential part of money management, whether it’s for personal or business-related purposes. And when it comes to planning, aggregating, and analyzing budgets, Excel is still the go-to tool for many people from different lifestyles and professions.
Having a budget template in Excel is a more accessible, affordable, and familiar option for many users. What’s more, you can easily customize your templates to suit your exact needs. Whether you need to budget for your new startup business, control annual department spending, or save up for your first car, there is a template out there for everyone.
Let’s go over some of our favorite free Excel budget templates that you can customize to fit your own needs.
Free excel budgeting templates for 2024
- Free excel budgeting templates for 2024
- Expense tracker by Sheetgo
- Monthly Budget Planner by Money Under 30
- Annual Budget Planner by Budget Templates
- Student Budget template by Microsoft
- Household Expense Budget template by Smartsheet
- Zero-based Budget Spreadsheet by Smartsheet
- Money Manager template by Smartsheet
- Small business budget template by Capterra
- What are budget templates?
- Why use budget templates in Excel?
Free excel budgeting templates for 2024
1. Expense tracker by Sheetgo
The Sheetgo Expense tracker template is ideal for anyone looking for a simple way to monitor expenses and automate financial management. You could use it for your business or implement it in your team. You could even use it at home with your family, to track how much each person is spending.
It is an ideal income and expense spreadsheet for small business and large enterprises alike.
The Expenses tracker template is easy to use, and gives you a comprehensive view of your expenses. It consists of 4 spreadsheets:
- Three individual expense trackers – Each user will have their own spending tracking spreadsheet. Initially there are three of these but you can add as many as you need to accommodate your team.
- A master sheet – All the data from the individual trackers is combined here for an overview of company expenses.
This template also comes packed with a dashboard that provides insights that are updated, accessible, and actionable.
Get the template here: Sheetgo expense tracker for Excel
2. Monthly Budget Planner by Money Under 30
This budget planner by Money Under 30 has a dedicated page for every month of the year. Each page is divided into sections that you can customize to the different areas of your spending. Simply input your purchases in the corresponding category. Track how much money you’ve spent in any given month, and how much of your budget is left over.
Moreover, the template also has a summary page where you can find snapshots of your debts and savings.
3. Annual Budget Planner by Budget Templates
Budget Templates offers a yearly personal budget planner which gives you an overview of your yearly budget. The spreadsheet can hold a year’s worth of budgeting information in just a single tab. Each worksheet has customizable sections where you can input additional income and investments, so you have everything in one place.
This annual budget template is meant for anyone who needs an effective overview of their financial spending over multiple years. It could provide a solution for regular, long-term spending such as mortgages, loans, and annual vacations.
4. Student Budget template by Microsoft
Managing finances can be a challenge for students, especially for those who’ve just started college and are experiencing the huge responsibility of living on your own.
Microsoft’s Student Budget template is the perfect budgeting tool for those who want to track and control their allowance and part-time job incomes. Add your college-related spending into one tab, and your personal spending in the other. The template will calculate the budget of your personal spending so you never have to worry about going over your income. The best thing is that you can use this Microsoft budget template both as a downloadable file, but also as an online version.
5. Household Expense Budget by Smartsheet
This financial management tool is made for budget-conscious families. With the Household Expense Budget planner by Smartsheet, you track the income and spending of your entire household.
Each sheet in the template is dedicated to a single month of the year, giving you more insight into your family’s monthly cash flow. Track continuous outgoings such as the mortgage, utility bills, and internet. Then, track one-off expenses such as restaurant bills, cinema tickets, and airfare. With this template, you can even create an emergency fund budget and assign income to your savings account, for a more reliable and secure budgeting solution.
6. Zero-based Budget Spreadsheet by Smartsheet
The idea behind this Excel sheet budget template is to allocate every dollar of your income to a part or aspect of your budget, so the difference between both equals zero.
The Zero-based budget Spreadsheet has two sections – one side for your monthly income and another for your expenses. Once you finish filling out both areas, the difference should be zero. If not, you should adjust either side. This method allows you to track where your money is going.
7. Money Manager template by Smartsheet
Need a tool that will let you keep an eye on your budget and on your expenses in a single location?
Then the Money Manager template is an option to consider. This budget tracking spreadsheet records and tracks all your financial transactions, and even balances your checkbook.
8. Small business budget template by Capterra
If you are starting to dabble in the world of business, then you will be interested in the Small Business Budget template. Capterra has developed a budgeting spreadsheet that startup owners can use for both long-term and short-term budget planning. The template also features an overview sheet. This sheet provides analytical insight into the efficiency of your business budgeting strategy.
Simply add your operational and non-operating income, then input your fixed and variable costs. This template will then calculate your gross profit, with a breakdown and analysis of where your money is going.
What are budget templates?
Budgeting templates are pre-built structures you can use inside a spreadsheet to organize, manage and monitor your budgeting needs. They can save you a lot of time and manual effort by organizing and calculating your finances for you.
Although budgeting templates can differ in features, the general idea is the same. Record and keep track of all outgoing payments on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. These templates will give you a clear overview of how much you’re spending, what you’re spending on, and your total gross income.
You can use budgeting templates both in professional and personal circ*mstances. Here are just a few examples:
- Startup business annual budgeting
- Monthly department budgeting
- Student budgeting
- Family household budgeting
- Event budgeting
- Personal budgeting
Why use a budget template in Excel?
As the most widely used spreadsheet tool, Excel is a popular choice for data management. Using a budgeting template in an already familiar tool is the simplest option to keep track of your finances.
Using an Excel budgeting template has a range of benefits:
- Accessibility: Almost everyone has access to Excel. What’s more, you can open Excel online, so you can collaborate with other users or update your template from any device.
- Personalization: Adding your templates in Excel means that it’s easy for you to customize the templates to your exact needs.
- Optimization: By having your budgeting template in Excel, you can access Microsoft’s range of analytical features and functionalities. Create graphs and charts to visualize your data, or use different formulas to calculate new insights.
- Affordability: Spreadsheet templates are (for the most part) free, the same can’t be said of complex financial software. Simply download your copy and get budgeting! No large upfront costs.
Free Excel budget templates
And there you have it! Excel is a versatile and valuable budgeting tool that has definitely proven its worth. But as with most things, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all money management tool. You’ll need a specific template for a particular budgeting task.
There are a variety of budgeting templates available, which one is best depends on your needs. Although all of the templates we covered provide an immediate solution, the Sheetgo Expense tracker takes budgeting to the next level.
Looking for an all-in-one solution to control your finances? Check out our spreadsheet-based solution to automate your financial management and track all your business transactions.
Editor’s note: This is a revised version of a previous post that has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
